The Fight for the Christian Cross in Bavaria

Bavaria- Germany: In Germany, there are a lot of ongoing debates on the public display of the crucifix. The Prime Minister of the Free State of Bavaria Markus Söder has issued a decree according to which crosses should be installed in all official buildings. He was criticized by secularists, and some church leaders. Thus, Roman Catholic high school cleric Burkhard Hose (Würzburg) expressed that the cross is an extension of a policy of exclusion or of nationalistic egoism. The Roman Catholic official wrote that he is flouting on a “Christian West” with school crosses on the wall. Even Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who is one of the closest advisers of Pope Francis, turned against the cross-initiative and urged social debate about the same with the involvement of Jews and Muslims. Cardinal fails to recognize that Jews and Muslims extremists are hostile to Christian cross.

The outcome of the debate with these religious representatives is already in sight. It should not be forgotten that Cardinal Marx and his Protestant colleague Heinrich Bedford-Strohm took down their episcopal cross while visiting the Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem in order not to provoke those of other faiths. Attitudes of the two church prelates were met with outrage among many believers worldwide.

The Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany are increasingly following anti-christian zeitgeist, which has a lot of say in politics, the media and education. Söder’s cross decree have already preceded a scandal in Bavaria. A circuit judge ordered to remove the cross in the courtroom in Miesbach in Upper Bavaria in consideration of a Muslim defendant. The vast majority of Bavaria is still Christian: 6.7 million Roman Catholics, 3.4 million Protestants and 190,000 Orthodox Christians. Prime Minister Söder justified the cross-decree commenting that the cross is religious symbol that has an identity-shaping and formative effect on society. For the Roman Catholic bishop Rudolf Voderholzer (Regensburg), the cross belongs to public space: “The cross is the epitome of Western culture. It is the expression of a culture of love, compassion and affirmation of life. It is one of the foundations of Europe.”